The Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday provided some clarity on their months-long search for new leadership in the hockey operations department by naming Shawn Horcoff as the team’s interim general manager.
The announcement effectively pauses what’s been a tediously long process, with very little information escaping the team’s fortress on who the serious candidates are (or were). The team’s statement indicates that the search is ongoing for a new head of hockey operations, with Horcoff still in the running himself. By putting a GM in place ahead of training camp beginning on Thursday, the suggestion is that they are comfortable with this situation for the entirety of the 2026-27 season, unless a suitable candidate emerges before then.
Horcoff has essentially functioned as the team’s interim GM since Steve Yzerman was reassigned in mid-July, though the team never officially gave him the title until today. There hasn’t been a ton of news since then aside from a few prospect-related transactions Horcoff would have likely spearheaded anyway, but GMs also handle administrative tasks and attend league-wide events, such as the summer GM meetings, which Horcoff was reported to have represented the team at.
You can read several statements from Chris Ilitch in the team’s announcement, and he also conducted a paywalled Q&A with The Detroit News’ Bob Wojnowski.
I’ll pull out a couple of things that jumped out to me from Ilitch’s comments:
- Ilitch does not seem concerned about a timeline or mounting public or media criticism. He says he’ll make a hire when he finds the right leader who he believes is “an innovative difference-maker.”
- He denied recent media reports that the Red Wings asked permission to interview candidates that they never followed up with.
- He made multiple references to Detroit being fourth in the NHL on January 26, 2026, and indicated he had no plans to make a GM change until things fell apart in the spring. He felt that the evolution of the league formed a need for a new leader.
- He refuted the idea that this was the organization’s way of choosing Larkin over Yzerman, saying that the Red Wings are 101 years old and “bigger than any one player, coach, general manager or owner.”
I consider myself a glass-half-full person, but I’ll start by saying this whole process has been immensely concerning for reasons that do not involve Horcoff at all. I’ve followed the NHL for decades and don’t remember any situation remotely close to this. Letting Yzerman go after the draft and free agency was incredibly poor timing. While he’s still employed as an advisor to ownership, it seems unlikely he will be involved in many hockey-related decisions moving forward. It derailed what felt like a crucial crossroads offseason for the team, which has narrowly missed the playoffs for the past three seasons and is well-stocked with young talent, but has not been able to turn a corner the way other rebuilding franchises, particularly within the division, have.
To then, as per media reports, engage with TurnkeyZRG, widely considered the top executive headhunting recruiting firm in sports, and not be able to find a resolution raises many questions. Again, there are very few confirmed reports of anyone Detroit interviewed, but that process put the franchise in a holding pattern for over two months and ultimately resolved itself with Yzerman’s #2 man taking the job, at least for the time being.
But how we got here ultimately matters much less than what happens moving forward. Horcoff is well-regarded in hockey circles and struck me as an intelligent and motivated young executive during my time with the team. He now has an excellent opportunity to seize the job beyond this interim period, especially given the foggy timeline for what happens beyond this.
Many fans preferred an external candidate, and it certainly felt the Red Wings did, too, given the length of the search, but I want to push back on some misconceptions. Though he comes from “Yzerman’s circle,” I think it’s pretty absurd to think that any hockey executive is 100% in lockstep with the general manager’s decisions. You’ll never hear anything like “the Red Wings acquired Justin Faulk, much to the disapproval of the team’s assistant GMs.” It’s always a united front, as it should be. If it’s not, you’ve got people working for you undermining you by going to the media behind your back. It’s sports, and much like your group of hockey friends, or even the commentariat here, you’re going to disagree with people you like and respect.
Reading between the lines, I think Horcoff has a mandate here, which is essentially… do something. He’s been around, so he knows how frustrating these ~90-points, 9th-10th place in the East seasons have been of late. If he wants this job, he has to avoid doing that (or if this doesn’t end up being a full-season thing, he has to avoid trending towards that). Hence, there really isn’t much more I have to offer other than saying he could be a good hire — much like many external candidates could have been — if he can fulfill that mandate.
If he wants this job, he can’t sit on his hands. There’s action to take. Beyond the obvious, immediate items that he’ll need to attend to, he’s dealing with a team that needs a refresh and just endured a summer of running in place — or in reality, sliding backwards while other teams addressed their needs (whether those teams were successful is another matter). There’s no reason to be shy, should an opportunity to improve the team present itself. He is said to have “full authority,” per the team’s statements, and let’s hope that’s really the case.
So, the Horcoff era begins. He doesn’t have a captain, as the team took the ‘C’ away from Larkin ahead of camp, and he’s down a top-pair defenseman, with Simon Edvinsson unsigned. Both players are expected to report to training camp, per recent reports. He’s got another star forward in Alex DeBrincat who can be extended, and will be the subject of trade rumors each and every day that he is not. And, if he wants to add to his staff at all, he has an accelerated timeline to do that. He has his work cut out for him.
I’m always over the offseason by this point, especially this year. What a mess. But we’re onto the time of year that matters. Play the games. Improve the team. Let’s see where things go.
